Kolkata, Sep 14 (IANS): Rebellion had surfaced within the CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal as Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) had now decided to field its own candidate for the bypoll for Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal next month.
The development came despite the name of a CPI(M) nominee having been announced last week as the official Left Front candidate for the Rejinagar bypoll.
On September 12, the CPI(M)’s Sayeed Asad Ali, an advocate in personal life, was announced as the official Left Front candidate for the Rejinagar bypolls. The announcement attracted ire from the RSP leadership, who claimed that Ali’s name was not a unanimous choice of the Left Front but a forceful imposition of its own candidate by the CPI(M) leadership on the front.
Now, directly rebelling against the CPI(M) leadership, the RSP on Monday fielded its own candidate, Bikash Chandra Mishra, as the party candidate.
“For a long time, the Rejinagar Assembly Constituency had been allotted to RSP. In the 2021 Assembly polls, we had sacrificed our claim for Rejinagar, because of the seat sharing arrangement with the Congress. Even in 2026, we sacrificed our claim for Rejinagar in support of the West Socialist Party candidate. But this we are not ready to sacrifice again. So, for the Rejinagar bypolls we have fielded Mishra, who is the son of the soil in the true sense,” said a state RSP leader.
In the recently-concluded West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, former Trinamool Congress legislator Humayun Kabir contested and was elected as an Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) candidate from Naoda and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies, both in Murshidabad district.
Later, Humayun Kabir decided to retain Naoda, thus necessitating bypolls for the Rejinagar seat.
Kabir’s son Gulam Nabi Azad is the AJUP candidate for the Rejinagar Assembly bye-election. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction in the Trinamool Congress and the Congress also have their candidates for the Rejinagar bypolls.
The BJP and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress are also expected to announce their candidates on Monday.
Rejinagar, along with Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district, is scheduled to go for bypolls on October 6 and the results will be declared on October 9. The last date for filing nominations for both the constituencies is September 16.
